WASHINGTON, April 4, 2008 - Elkhorn Valley Packing LLC, a Harper, Kan.,establishment, is voluntarily recalling approximately 406,000 pounds offrozen cattle heads with tonsils not completely removed, which is notcompliant with regulations that require the removal of tonsils from cattleof all ages, the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Food Safety and InspectionService announced today.

Tonsils are considered a specified risk material (SRM) and must be removedfrom cattle of all ages in accordance with FSIS regulations. SRMs aretissues that are known to contain the infective agent in cattle infectedwith BSE, as well as materials that are closely associated with thesepotentially infective tissues. Therefore, FSIS prohibits SRMs from use ashuman food to minimize potential human exposure to the BSE agent.

The company is recalling all products packed before March 28, 2008, with thepackage code "91700" or "93700." These products were sent to distributorsand wholesalers nationwide.

The problem was discovered at a State-inspected processing establishmentthat received some of the recalled products and verified that there had beenincomplete removal of the tonsils. FSIS has received no reports of illnessat this time.

Media and consumers with questions about the recall should contact companyPresident Mike Grant at (620) 896-2300.

Consumers with food safety questions can "Ask Karen," the FSIS virtualrepresentative available 24 hours a day at AskKaren.gov. The toll-free USDAMeat and Poultry Hotline 1-888-MPHotline (1-888-674-6854) is available inEnglish and Spanish and can be reached from l0 a.m. to4 p.m. (Eastern Time) Monday through Friday. Recorded food safety messagesare available 24 hours a day.#

ABSTRACT. The tonsils of cattle, including palatine tonsils, pharyngealtonsils, tubal tonsils and lingual tonsils, are designated as specified riskmaterials (SRM). However, the detailed distribution of lingual tonsils incattle is unknown. We therefore histologically examined their distributionin 198 tongue specimens from cattle. The examinations confirmed that thepresence of lingual tonsils was limited to the tissue of the lamina propriaon the dorsal and lateral aspects of the tongue, not reaching the muscularlayer below. More than 90% of the lingual tonsils were located between thedistribution center of the vallate papillae and the radix linguae (root ofthe tongue). However, they were also found in the area extending from thelingual torus to the rostral-most vallate papilla in an individual,suggesting that the complete removal of the lingual tonsils requireselimination of the lamina propria extending from the lingual torus to theradix linguae.

There are no published reports on the accumulation ofprion proteins (PrP) in the lingual tonsils of BSE-infectedcattle. However, the tonsils of sheep have shown infectivityor prion accumulation in the case of natural scrapie [3]. Forthis reason, EC Regulation 999/2001 specifies that thetongue be cut at the lingual torus of the basihyoid bone toavoid food contamination by lingual tonsils. Wells et al.[11] reported that intracerebral inoculation of palatine tonsilsof cattle experimentally infected orally with BSE tenmonths earlier caused BSE infection in other cattle. Theyalso pointed out the possibility that tonsils in general areinfective. Furthermore, they examined the distribution oflingual tonsils in 100 British cattle tongues marketed forconsumption and reported that lingual tonsils were still histologicallyobserved in the tongues after removal of theradix linguae. Similarly, Kühne et al. [5] histologicallyexamined the tongues of two cattle aged more than 18months and reported that lingual tonsils were observed inareas distant from the most caudal vallate papilla.Our study found that 93.5% of the lingual tonsils weredistributed between the most caudal vallate papilla and the

intermediate position between this vallate papilla and themost rostral vallate papilla. However, in rare cases, lingualtonsils were located near the most rostral vallate papilla oreven toward the tip of the lingual torus. Thus, our resultsreconfirmed past reports.Moreover examination of lingual tonsils located on thedorsal and lateral aspects of the tongue showed that the tonsilswere more commonly found on the lateral aspects of thetongue than on the dorsal aspect, but that their distributionwas limited to the lamina propria and did not extend into themuscular layer. This finding was confirmed by the fact thatno lingual tonsils were found in the specimens with preexposedmuscular layers. Based on our findings that specimensfrom individuals more than 30 months old had a lowprevalence of detection of lingual tonsils, we suggest thatlingual tonsils may regress as animals’ age.Based on the above results, we conclude that the removalof the lingual tonsils designated as SRM would be completeif tongues are processed by completely removing the laminapropria layer extending from the tip of the lingual torus tothe radix linguae on the dorsal and lateral aspects. The muscularlayer can be safely consumed due to its lack of lingualtonsillar tissue.The study was carried out with the cooperation of 18 meatinspection centers nationwide. The representatives of thecenters are as follows: Kazunori Nakanishi (Asahikawa CityMeat Hygiene Inspection Center), Hiroya Oyamada (TowadaMeat Inspection Center, Aomori Prefecture), KesayoSaito (Kenpoku Meat Inspection Office, Tochigi Prefecture),Naomi Onuki (Kensei Meat Inspection Office, IbarakiPrefecture), Susumu Mabara (Kennan Meat InspectionOffice, Ibaraki Prefecture), Masakazu Katayama/Kenji Ono(Toso Meat Inspection Station, Chiba Prefecture), MiyukiHara (Yokohama City Meat Inspection Center), Aki Shimazaki(Nagoya City Meat Inspection Center), TakayoshiOba (Toyama Prefectural Meat Inspection Center), YoshinoriKaji (Kanazawa City Meat Inspection Center), KeikoFujita (Gifu Prefectural Meat Inspection Office), ShoichiYamanaka (Matsusaka Meat Inspection Office, Mie Prefecture),Tomoyuki Nakayama (Shiga Prefectural Meat InspectionOffice), Hanjiro Kitada (Osaka City Meat InspectionOffice), Kazuyuki Okahata (Nishiharima Meat InspectionOffice, Hyogo Prefecture), Daisuke Nozaki (KobayashiMeat Inspection Center, Miyazaki Prefecture), KoichiYamada / Junko Hamada (Sueyoshi Meat Inspection Center,Kagoshima Prefecture), and Tomoyuki Nanba (ShibauraMeat Sanitary Inspection Station, Tokyo Metropolitan Government).

The infectivity in tissues from cattle exposed orally to the agent of BSEwas assayed by the intracerebral inoculation of cattle. In addition to theinfectivity in the central nervous system and distal ileum at stages ofpathogenesis previously indicated by mouse bioassay, traces of infectivitywere found in the palatine tonsil of cattle killed 10 months after exposure.Because the infectivity may therefore be present throughout the tonsils incattle infected with BSE, observations were made of the anatomical andhistological distribution of lingual tonsil in the root of the tongue ofcattle. Examinations of tongues derived from abattoirs in Britain andintended for human consumption showed that macroscopically identifiabletonsillar tissue was present in more than 75 per cent of them, and even inthe tongues in which no visible tonsillar tissue remained, histologicalexamination revealed lymphoid tissue in more than 90 per cent. Variations inthe distribution of the lingual tonsil suggested that even after the mostrigorous trimming of the root of the tongue, traces of tonsillar tissue mayremain.